Datalighting

The beginning of a 100 foot journey

Bye bye MediaLAB! You were nothing less than an adventure <3. It is never a goodbye and until then this is team KLM – Data Lighting signing off in style in our new sweaters.

Sprint-05 Summary

In comparison to the other sprints, this sprint is only two weeks long. It’s going to be really short and stressful, right? As long as we keep our heads clear and our gaze free, we think we can manage it 🙂

So for this sprint, our original goal was:

Create a physical prototype displaying Power over Ethernet and expand the prototype of the Generator and Circularity passport.

However, after talking with our coach, we decided that we shouldn’t spend time on a physical prototype as it would not help us with our end goal. So our new goal will be:

Update the prototype based on the Generator & Circularity Passport and create a rough draft of the business model.

After the enthusiastic Monday at MediaLAB framing our Sprint 5 Goal, it was time for us to visit the Hangar 11 & 12 since they also needed a change of lighting system. So we scheduled a meeting on the following day and took off to visit the majestic Blue birds. Oh and of course getting into the specificity of our work there. We must mention we were quite honoured and surprised to see youngsters welcoming us who had the same mindset as us and with all due respect can rightly be called the “Change- makers” in the KLM scene. We were given a run through of the Hangar and the intent behind them involving us in this particular project of renewing the Hangar and making it completely on-going. We were rightly excited and thrilled to work on such a different scenario which was challenging at the same time because our user research had mainly concentrated only on the Data center.

The team at Hangar 11 & 12

However, we promised them we would deliver a rough conceptual framework of what would fit their needs the best. So yay! We have another meeting scheduled the beginning of January.  Now moving back to MediaLAB.

We had a session with a coach from another team, Marco. He really liked our idea and he gave us a good suggestion to create a package we can present to companies. Our coach also seemed to think our idea could turn into a profitable company.

Having said that, we tried contacting Alliander, Cisco and the Edge building, but unfortunately there was no availability. We, however, got lucky with Chess Wise. Wednesday after the peer pitch, we went to Haarlem and showed them our framework, consisting of the Generator and the Circularity passport.

Explaining the Generator and Circularity passport to Chess Wise 

Being the technical expertise, they thought our concept of the Generator was very cool and user-friendly, but far from complete. Also some of our questions were not necessarily leading to the solution. But this was something we were also struggling with. However, they are willing to help us work on it by giving us suggestions and valuable inputs to complete the generator. All in all, this meeting was great to make us think how to tackle our impending problems and gave us a different perspective.

The following morning, we had our fifth sprint review. This time Mijndert Den Hartog and Micheal van Balen were present.

We expanded the application of sensors in the Data center.

The different kind of sensors in the rooms

How the lighting reacts to movement

The Generator and Circularity passport were updated.

Now they share the same screen and they are in KLM brand colours!

Hovering over the questions on the right, highlights the answers on the left

Furthermore, we gave them some proposals how they can apply this framework in the future.

Our plan of action

They seemed to be content with our progress in this time period. However, we need to be more specific in our business case. Mijndert will try to send us a format for the business cases they use at KLM. Our coach also proposed to maybe plan a short session with Chess Wise to work on the generator and a session with Mijndert to work out the plan or the Data centre room by room.

After this short, but whacky ride, it is time for our last and final sprint. Monday we will discuss how we are going to finish this. Although we are nearing the end, it is more challenging and fun than ever! But now, it’s time for lunch!

Sprint-03 Summary

After our white-knuckle ride, which was the case of our second sprint, we came to the conclusion we should not focus only on an application. If anything, the application could be a part of a bigger system. However we word it, it all leads to the same point: we must broaden our thoughts and stop thinking in small scaled-solutions.

Picture was taken during our Sprint planning meeting, where we had a brainstorm session

After a fierce brainstorm session, it was apparent that if our stakeholders are expecting something life-changing and innovative. We must deliver a tool which will always remain dynamic. Something infinite.

We came up with the idea to adopt the Cradle-to-Cradle theory, which we consider to aid us in this project. Assuming we can create something that is applicable everywhere and always relevant, it could be the fitting solution which we can provide. Easier said than done, as designing this model was a real brainteaser.

Cradle-to-Cradle is basically an idea where every material retains it’s value. So after it’s usage, it will be recycled and ready to be used again

Our sprint goal this time was:

Design a framework based on the lighting system inspired from the “cradle to cradle” theory to suit the KLM premises on a holistic level and demonstrate a prototype fitting the context of Data Centre.

At the end of the first week, we decided to have another brainstorm session/ workshop, combining the ideas we all had through our research. This workshop gave us a few interesting revelations:

• We decided we’ll go ‘out of the box’ for the recycling part;
• We took a standpoint as to the best solution could be like a closed loop ( or semi closed system), where the lights are also recycled to be implemented again;
• The needed technological innovation with regard to the loop already has grown so wide, so we came to the conclusion to take advantage of that and focus our minds on the C2C-part.

First concept of our Cradle-to-Cradle design

Still we had our doubts concerning certain parts. However, after visiting Chess Wise and seeing some of their possibilities, it gave us an opportunity to look into the practical functionality of the technology loop, that we slowly started to see the different puzzle pieces fit together. And this was only enforced when we had our Translate session. During the meeting, together with our coaches we came up with the idea to create a framework with all the current possibilities. And this was the push we needed to get into our flow. We also made the very important decision of changing the recycle part into the reclaim part.

Picture was taken during our meeting with Chess Wise

The rest of the time was used to think of the possibilities and components of this framework and connecting this to the idea of a passport. We decided that this passport would be our altered design model of the Cradle to cradle system. We made a tabular scheme incorporating the different  components needed in the system. This framework was eventually converted to an interactive circular diagram. From this framework the user can choose his own parameters and come up with a system.  The passport plays an important role, it basically lists all the materials, present in the building and the possibilities as of how to reclaim them. But it also contains the performances of the building, like energy usages, heat management etc.

The process of our design

The tabular presentation of the possibilities 

Diagram of the passport

This is the conceptual idea we eventually presented to the stakeholders on the 10th of November. They seem to understand the pivot we made to focus on a system instead of a technical part of the system.

For the next sprint, we would like to perform an intense user research, look into ways of making a feasible system and elaborate on the practical application of it. If possible, we would also like to view other premises of KLM, so we can adapt this system to be used on a wide variety of buildings in the premises. But we are sure that we would not lose our aim and make the system work for the Data Center.  This means we must make hard decisions, as well as give our stakeholders the choice to make decisions- flexibility is the key we are going to focus on.

So, you could say this was until now the most braincracking sprint. We discussed a lot more. But the result is definitely something we can build upon. If this works, then we will definitely be smart and sustainable for the future as we intended to achieve through the course of the project! Fingers crossed.

Sprint Demo

After three weeks, the moment has finally come where we showcase our progress to our stakeholders to receive feedback for the next Sprint.

In theory, we had to present it to five people, but alas, only two were able to make it. Eventually, we presented it to Micheal, Mijndert and Gijs, our coach.

In short, we explained them about our research process with the stakeholder map and the golden circle graphically represented. Then went on to explain our idea and last but definitely not the least, the prototype and physical model demo.

The current stakeholder map we have desgined.

With our research, we came up with this Golder Circle, visualizing the three important stakeholders and their WWW

A few screens of our prototype

One of the scenario’s of how to use the application on a tablet

Our prototype was be able to run on iPhones. Here we are showing them the current functionality

We received lots of varied feedback from the present stakeholders. However, some great ideas always comes during the most random times. This is why we have also have mailed them a feedback form and a summary, which can be read and sent at one’s own phase.

With all the gathered information we have received, we are positive we can make a great second sprint.

Meeting up with KLM employees

Introduction

On the 8th of September, we had an appointment for meeting with a few employees of KLM. During this interview a lot of ambiguities were cleared up, since we got a chance to finally determine the authentic goal of our project.
Opening with an ice breaker, we moved on to a presentation introducing ourselves and our skills. Eventually the topic shifted to the actual task and a tour through KLM’s Data Centre, familiarly known as The Bunker and subsequently into a questionnaire session.

The Service Desk of the Point of View building

Objective

The objective of this meeting was to squeeze as much information as possible out of our partner KLM. This is a necessity considering the first Sprint planning is around the corner, which requires a great deal of knowledge about the subject of the issue.

We finally had the chance to take a good group picture

Gained insights

• The problem to be addressed and innovated is based on the following criteria:
  • Energy usage;
  • Temperature;
  • Usability;
  • Flexibility;
  • Maintenance;
  • Extensibility;
  • Cost avoidance.
• The lighting products are to be replaced, as they are old and prone to failure; since the building is reaching its 26th birthday this year;
• Around 500 TL lights are in usage;
• Only a few lamps are lit 24/7. Most lamps are used during maintenance;
• The Data Center contains no sensors to automatically adjust the lightning;
• Other than maintenance workers, there are no employees present in the building, since it contains little to no work space;
• Numerous lights are fitted inaccurately, leading to poor functionality and causing problems for the workers;
• The High Security Area (HSA) uses the most energy (at full capacity 16 kWh per 1500 m2 with 24 x 24 lights);
• Specific info like floorplans, floor- and door numbers, etc. should not be mentioned on the blog.